genetic testing

Outspoken Dr Rhona Mahony, who finishes her seven-year term as Master of the National Maternity Hospital this month, has appealed for the new extended abortion service to be properly resourced. The privacy of women availing of the service and the staff involved must also be protected, she said.

Dr Mahony, who was a prominent supporter of the Repeal the Eighth campaign, has revealed that 60 women attending the hospital during 2016, whose unborn baby was diagnosed with a fatal foetal abnormality, travelled to Britain for a termination.

Opinion: Legislating for abortion is very complex and a clear guiding principle is required
The ‘yes’ side contained a wide range of views about when abortion should be permitted – the government can’t please them all, writes Professor Dermot Cox.

Fri Nov 30, 2018
Dermot Cox

THE EIGHTH AMENDMENT did not prohibit abortion – in fact it never mentioned the word abortion, rather it articulated a guiding principle that the foetus had rights that were on par with those of the mother.

The government’s rationale for repealing the eighth was that it tied their hands to legislate in this area. Now it has stated that it will introduce legislation on abortion as this reflects the will of the people in the referendum.

Ending a Pregnancy Because of Down Syndrome Is Not a Precursor to Eugenics

By Jen Gann
Aug 21, 2017

Over the weekend, Quartz published a post about the prevalence of Down syndrome in Iceland. Drawing statistics from a recent CBS report, Bonnie Rochman, author of The Gene Machine, writes, “In Iceland, nearly every woman who undergoes prenatal testing and whose fetus receives a diagnosis of Down syndrome decides to end her pregnancy.”

Note the word “decides.” No one is forcing women in Iceland to choose abortions — individual women are making those decisions. From this statement of fact, Rochman makes a shaky leap: “In essence, pregnant women in Iceland — and presumably their partners — are saying that life with disability is not worth living.”

"What kind of society do you want to live in?": Inside the country where Down syndrome is disappearing

By Julian Quinones, Arijeta Lajka, CBS News
Aug 14, 2017

With the rise of prenatal screening tests across Europe and the United States, the number of babies born with Down syndrome has significantly decreased, but few countries have come as close to eradicating Down syndrome births as Iceland.

Since prenatal screening tests were introduced in Iceland in the early 2000s, the vast majority of women -- close to 100 percent -- who received a positive test for Down syndrome terminated their pregnancy.

As a young woman, I had no particular desire to be a mother. I was neither for nor against having and raising a child, and as things were at the time, the opportunity had not presented itself. That changed when I was 29 and met Jim, the man who would become my husband. In 2002, not long after we married, I gave birth to my son.

In my 20s, I was neutral about parenthood partly because, as a woman with cerebral palsy, I was spared the usual intrusive questioning and expectations about having children that most women are subject to. People never pressured me to have children; they just assumed that I could not. In fact, it became clear very fast that women like me are expected not to reproduce. Now, in my 40s, I find these attitudes ignorant and prejudicial, but as a young woman, it seemed like a bit of freedom to be excused from the usual problems women complain about.